Glory 9 brought great action to kickboxing fans this past Saturday. The event also helped the Glory promotion name its first light heavyweight Slam champion, and provided everyone a greater sense of who’s who in a long-underrepresented division. Glory will now have to attract additional talent from around the world to bolster the ranks of an already strong group of light heavyweights. This series of articles looks at kick boxers that we at LiverKick would have liked to see in Saturday’s tournament and hope Glory can bring into the fold going forward.

Ondrej Hutnik is a 30-year-old southpaw fighting out of Prague, Czech Republic. While his tendency to fight domestically is a concern for some fans, Hutnik has put together a substantial win streak and continues to collect accolades at the light heavyweight mark. With one of the more established resumes in the weight class, it would be fitting to see the Czech kick boxer on kickboxing’s biggest stage.

Hutnik began his career near 147 pounds, and collected titles while moving up toward the light heavyweight division. In December 2005, Hutnik defeated Sem Braan – for the second time in roughly six months – to advance to the It’s Showtime 75MAX Trophy Final. When the final tournament rolled around in September 2006, the Czech fighter defeated Dmitry Shakuta and Joerie Mes before dropping a decision to Sahin Yakut in the championship bout. A victory over countryman Jiri Zak would follow, and Hutnik soon moved up to fight around 190 pounds.

The last defeat of Hutnik’s career came near that mark, as Tyrone Spong stopped him with a hellacious body shot in March 2008. Hutnik’s resume since includes a number of wins over recognizable names, including Redouan Cairo, James Phillips, and Hakan Aksoy. He became the 2011 Enfusion kickboxing tournament champion by following up wins against Wendell Roche and Thiago Martina with decision victories over Mohamed Boubkari and Frank Munoz in the same night. Hutnik has won six more bouts since, defeating Fight Code veteran Pacome Assi and Spanish standout Loren Javier Jorge along the way.

On June 14th, Hutnik topped Stefan Leko in the Czech city of Brno, stopping the K-1 veteran in the round of their championship bout. Hutnik landed a kick that clearly injured Leko’s right arm and led to the bout being immediately waved off.

For many fans, Hutnik’s biggest shortcoming may be his tendency to stay near home when entering the ring. Hutnik has not fought outside of the Czech Republic, or neighboring Slovakia, since early 2011. Considered in tandem with a decision-heavy record and lack of blistering speed, this has led some to question whether Hutnik’s success in recent years would be duplicated in a promotion like Glory.

Unlike our last featured fighter, Vladimir Mineev, Ondrej Hutnik does not have an upcoming bout scheduled at this time.